More PDA Market Share Numbers - Pocket PC Eeks Above 30%

[Ed Hansberry]

<a href="http://news.com.com/2100-1040-963511.html?tag=fd_top">http://news.com.com/2100-1040-963511.html?tag=fd_top</a><br /><br />According to a new report by Dataquest, one that focuses on PDAs and ignores Nokia's phone (as it should be :roll:) Pocket PCs have edged above 30% worldwide marketshare. I have a chart below but there is not enough info on the "other" categories to show what makes up that 30%. I am sure Toshiba makes up the lion's share of the remaining Pocket PC market share with some of the smaller Asian brands rounding it out.<br /><br /><img src="http://www.pocketpcthoughts.com/images/hansberry/2002/20021029-marketshare.jpg" /><br /><!><br /><br />Sony has actually leapfrogged HP (the iPAQ) in the US market. Sony releases a new PDA every few months and has actually averaged one new device per month lately. 8O The iPAQ is getting old. Even though the 3900 is only a few months old, it is based on the 3800, now a year old, and that is an evolution of the 3600, now over two years old. I expect the market to be shaken up in the 4th quarter of 2002 and the 1st quarter of 2003 as the sub $300 Pocket PCs from HP (iPAQ 2200), Dell and ViewSonic hit the market. HP also has the 5000 series iPAQ to hit the top end with a variety of wireless and phone features integrated. Palm OS 5 devices are also rolling out and it remains to be seen if new devices like the $499 Tungsten T, which lacks MP3 capabilities and has an estimated 3.5hrs of on time battery life, can compete with $199-299 Pocket PCs which actually have more functionality. I know there will be a sales surge as the Tungsten T, Zire and Sony NX series hit the market, but will they gain new customers or just retain Palm loyalists? As Dataquest analysit Todd Kort puts it, "Much more competitive pricing from Pocket PC vendors, beginning in the fourth quarter of 2002, will undoubtedly stimulate growth in Pocket PC shipments and allow Palm less breathing room."<br /><br />Yahoo also has an <a href="http://story.news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story&ncid=581&e=1&cid=581&u=/nm/20021028/tc_nm/tech_handheld_report_dc">article on it here</a>. There is lots of good news in this report. In addition to Pocket PCs breaking the 30% barrier, the overall PDA market seems to have bottomed out and actually showed a bit of growth this quarter. Thanks to Foo Fighter and Jonathan Blackwell for the links.

[Foo Fighter]

...it remains to be seen if new devices like the $499 Tungsten T, which lacks MP3 capabilities and has an estimated 3.5hrs of on time battery life, can compete with $199-299 Pocket PCs which actually have more functionality.

Price of Dell Pocket PC: $199. Price of Palm Tungsten: $499.

Proving that PT Barnum was right: Priceless.

[Ed Hansberry]

Price of Dell Pocket PC: $199. Price of Palm Tungsten: $499.

Proving that PT Barnum was right: Priceless.

Wait 25 more minutes. I have only touched on that line of thought here. Watch the front page. :D

[jschloer]

Saw one of these at Circuit City yesterday. Unless there's some model I don't know of (Don't follow palm much), I was very unimpressed. Didn't even look at the price, but if it was 500 I'd be very surprised. I must have seen a lower model or something, cause there really wasn't much to it.
Those numbers definitely drive home the point of Sony's recent innovations. The Sony devices are the only ones I envy in the Palm arena. Really wish we could see some true innovation here in our camp. Don't get me wrong I think the new devices show some incremental changes, but nothing with the instant wow factor of something like the nr-70V. Well, I digress. I'll wait around to see what Ed's got for us next....

[Janak Parekh]

Saw one of these at Circuit City yesterday. Unless there's some model I don't know of (Don't follow palm much), I was very unimpressed. Didn't even look at the price, but if it was 500 I'd be very surprised. I must have seen a lower model or something, cause there really wasn't much to it.
The Tungsten T is really $500: http://www.palm.com/products/handhelds/tungsten-t/

It's massively overpriced. It's small, has Bluetooth, and is transflective, but that's about it.

--bdj

[Foo Fighter]

...and is transflective, but that's about it.

Nope. It has a reflective display.

[Bob Anderson]

I'm glad to see that the PocketPC is now nearly a third of the PDA universe (at least as far as new sales are concerned.)

With the upcoming new hardware, I agree that HP will probably jump up quite a bit in market share. However, it's my belief we'll see a really dramatic change when the next MSFT operating system for PDAs hits the market. Take a look at what a PPC can do today, and then ask yourself, "what's next?" With Palm making, in my opinion, a feeble attempt to get to PPC standards today, you just wonder how they'll keep up, the whole time MSFT and OEM partners just chew up more market share. Palm - R.I.P.

I think the next generation PPC O/S will be the one that gets Pocket PC market share close, if not over, the 50% threshold.

[Janak Parekh]

Nope. It has a reflective display.
You're kidding. I thought when the reviewers gloated about the screen they must have been seeing transflective. Sorry. That makes it even more overpriced. :D

--bdj

[sub_tex]

That tungsten is severely overpriced.

My god. I love my clie 610c and really haven't seen enough in the PPC OS yet to want to use one, but if I was a new buyer today, there's no way i would pay $500 for that device over a $200 Dell device!

It's just ludicrous.

The palm based handhelds need to drop their prices down until the high end can compete in terms of functionality. The Sharp Zaurus that's out there now offers more out of the box and costs less.

[Janak Parekh]

I think the problem is that Palm needs to recoup manufacturing and development costs.

I don't know if that's going to happen if you have, in a store, a Tungsten for $500 and a m515 for $199. Especially when, out-of-the-box, the Tungsten doesn't offer things like media playback.

--bdj

[JonnoB]

That tungsten is severely overpriced.

My god. I love my clie 610c and really haven't seen enough in the PPC OS yet to want to use one, but if I was a new buyer today, there's no way i would pay $500 for that device over a $200 Dell device!

It's just ludicrous.

The palm based handhelds need to drop their prices down until the high end can compete in terms of functionality. The Sharp Zaurus that's out there now offers more out of the box and costs less.

Maybe these trends will turn you from a pupil to a teacher. Educating others like yourself who have not yet 'seen the light'

[ThomasC22]

Palm OS 5 devices are also rolling out and it remains to be seen if new devices like the $499 Tungsten T, which lacks MP3 capabilities

Well, in all fairness, it doesn't lack MP3 capabilities they just neglected to give anyone a program that can use it :roll:

Palm's problem right now is that the great majority of their licensees are handheld only companies. HP, Dell, Toshiba all have other businesses so they don't have to chase unreal margins on their handhelds.

That fact will probably be the end of Palm.

[Foo Fighter]

Palm's problem right now is that the great majority of their licensees are handheld only companies.

With the exception of SONY. Ah....Sony. The force is strong in this one...

[ThomasC22]

With the exception of SONY. Ah....Sony. The force is strong in this one...

I still think Sony will eventually buy Palm and that they're just waiting for Palm to spend itself out before they do.

[farnold]

I don't know if and how much one device may be overprices.... to be honest, my dounts here start way earlier. Who actually pays GARTNER for that research? I worked in a BIG5 organisation and used companies like GARTNER for market analysis. Guess what? The more we paid for a study the better was our own rating... cool, ey? So, I don't believe any of these statistics anymore as long as I don't know who actually gave money for it. :idea:

Isn't a figure like 50 percent of overall sales in the States a bit suspect? The USA with around 250 mio. inhabitants sells more devices than Japan with over 150 mio. technical addicts, Wetsrn Europe with 350 mio. or just Asia Pacific with almost half the world population? Very interesting figures, GARTNER put together... :roll: